Village Shop On A84, Lochearnhead

This is an L-plan house and shop, now a residential property named Taigh Na Bhuth, dating to circa 1870. It was originally the village post office and is located on the A84 at Lochearnhead. The building was constructed in the estate style, reflecting the influence of the nearby Edinchip House (listed building LB50340).

The building is a single storey with an attic. The principal, east-facing elevation features an advanced gable to the north, and the north elevation has an M-profile gable. It has pitched slate roofs, coped ashlar masonry stacks, gabled dormers of varying sizes, and deep eaves with exposed rafter ends. The walls are built of local rubble masonry with squared quoins and window margins, and painted sandstone ashlar cills. The windows are timber sash and case units, mostly with four panes.

The principal elevation has three bays, with those on the advanced gable featuring a single-storey canted window with a piended roof and painted ashlar sandstone mullions. A recent planning approval (2024) mandates the rebuilding of a shop door within the canted window as a matching window and the removal and replacement of a non-original timber porch in the central bay.

Interior alterations, evidenced by recent images (2022-23) and planning documents (2024), have resulted in a loss of historical character, with the exception of a timber staircase.

The building occupies a slightly recessed position behind a tarmacked layby, and has a small rear garden with a grass area raised on a retaining wall, and mature trees beyond the wall.

Historical records indicate that a previous structure was present on the site, located slightly to the west of the current footprint, as shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1866. An earlier post office, adjoining the schoolhouse, was also present at that time. The Second Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1899 shows the L-plan post office with an outshot to the south-west, which has since been demolished.

The building was originally owned by the MacGregor family, the local landowners, and the construction style mirrors that of Edinchip House. Lady Helen MacGregor’s letters in the family archive make references to the post office.

The building’s setting has changed over time. A masonry wall (later a picket fence) formerly bounded the front garden; by the 1970s, an Esso petrol station and petrol pumps occupied this space after the front garden was tarmacked over. The village shop closed around 2023.